Before reading the Chimero article I had an idea of the opposing ideas of Flat design and, what he refers to as, Skeuo. He says that any sensible designer would fall somewhere in the middle of the two and that both camps are incorrect in their approach, as their are both aesthetic in nature. I would agree with the need of finding a middle ground and not simply putting the aesthetic value of either above the other, but I think he somewhat glosses over the fact that flat design might be more effective in it’s reproducibility.
Flat design has the advantage of using smaller file sizes and adds a cleanliness and order to the screen, allowing for the same shapes to be reproduces at any size. When it comes to file size, flat design is often easily describable by few vector points, lines and shapes that allow for quicker processing. Sometimes the difference may be minimal between a Flat rendition as opposed to a Skeuo one, but all the elements of a website add up and can cause sites to run slowly for those who do not have the most up to date technology. Cleaner lines and shapes also allows for more manageable motion graphics as well.
When it comes to production, we can see that a Flat and clean design allows for an easier reproduction. This can be seen within typeface design in the past century. The advent of sans serif may have come in part because of aesthetic preferences, but it ultimately has conquered within an industrial setting. Helvetica, Univers and many other sans serifs are simply easier to reproduce thanks to their simple structure. For awhile I worked in graphic production creating vinyl cuts for all kinds of projects and without a doubt sans serifs, but also the more simple serif typefaces, made for an easier an cleaner reproductions at any size.
Another important point in the essay, is when Chimero mentions the importance of having universal names to describe motions within interactive and motion graphics. Often when collaborating in these types of projects I have come to a point where I could only describe a certain motion with geometrical terms, perhaps describing the the radius on which it spins a certain amount of degrees. This works well sometimes for simple motions that ultimately have to be express in a mathematical form within After Effects, but sometimes I can only resort to sketching out the various steps or hope to find two or three similar examples of a given motion on that may exist on the internet.
What The New York Times Web Reboot Gets Right by Rob Tannen
The change from a multiple page spanning article to a single page is a fantastic change in my opinion. For one it allows me to avoid loading times. I cannot stand, and I assume more and more people as well, the never ending gallery of images, articles, essays, blogs, etc. displayed on separate pages. This is a trick that may have worked in the past to get you ad revenue up, but I think intelligent users of the internet will increasingly shy away from these types of websites. Secondly I believe it gives the paper more credibility. Not that it will validate any of the sources or fact check the journalist efforts, but it will ultimately give the reader a better sense of what the paper’s intents are. Yes, they have a bottom line to meet, but users value the functionality of a website if it helps in their experience. Readers will find the New York Times to be trustworthy simply because they are not attempting to trick you like the other multiple page websites. Also, in my experience on the web, it seems like the website that are looking for the highest amount of clicks, often have the weakest of content. A look at any top 20 images of memes or albums of the month will show that some web developer are able to string a single paragraph of information into 3 or 4 pages by displaying a single sentence as the caption to an image. Sometimes they are effective because users want to find out what the top album of 2015 was and will click through all the pages, but many will be offended by this layout of information, since it could easily been displayed with a simple grocery list.
Great writing Chris! I often look at design as a facilitator of relationships, so, beyond wether it's clean and simple or more ornate, if the design doesn't get in the way but facilitates a connection with the end user, then it is successful. I do think simple, flat and minimal helps with 'getting out of the way.'
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